Yoon Ja-young is in charge of articles translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times. She is interested in improving the newspaper through AI.
Era of 'marsupial' young people
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By Yoon Ja-young
Recently, “Gangaroo House,” a pilot show aired on a cable TV channel, went viral. The show, whose Korean title translates as “Fully grown up, But not leaving parents,” showed the daily lives of celebrities living with their parents. It can be thought of as the opposite of the popular observational reality TV show “I Live Alone.”
Thanks to the positive response from viewers, it has been scheduled to become a regular show starting next year. Behind the popularity of this show is the rise of the “kangaroo tribe,” which refers to unmarried adults who haven’t moved out of their parents’ home, akin to a marsupial in its mother's pouch.
According to a report by the Korea Employment Information Service, the proportion of the kangaroo tribe among 25- to 34-year-olds was 66 percent as of 2020. In this study, young people who live with their parents, as well as those living separately due to temporary reasons, such as studies or military service, but without financial independence, were classified as the kangaroo tribe.
In other words, six or seven out of 10 people in this age group are either not financially independent from their parents or still live with them.
Why are they staying with their parents? Financial reasons come first, as one can imagine.
Han, a man in his late 30s living in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, recently gave up preparing for the police exam. He said that he had relied for years on his parents for most of the necessary funds, such as the tuition for the private academy and living expenses, though he occasionally supplemented his income with a part-time delivery job.
However, the preparation period stretched out longer than expected, and both he and his parents became exhausted. He said his parents sighed whenever they saw him. “I don’t have the money to move out, so I have no other choice. I plan to save up money by increasing my part-time delivery job, but I don’t know when I will have enough to get on my own," he said.
Being employed does not necessarily mean the person will be independent in Korea. According to the aforementioned report, the proportion of the kangaroo tribe among employed individuals slightly decreased from 65 percent to 63.5 percent, but it still means that six out of ten individuals in this group have not fully gained financial independence from their parents.
Jeon, a public servant in her 40s living in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, also lives with her parents, though she has a stable job. She doesn’t contribute to living expenses since her parents are well off.
“I don’t think I am relying on them. They relieve me of the household chores, but they depend on me emotionally. I think it's a win-win situation for both of us," she said.
A study by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs revealed that many young people in Korea, like Jeon, think they don’t need to live independently.
According to a survey of 2,086 young people aged 19 to 34, about 30 percent think they don’t need to live independently. Additionally, about 22 percent believed that economic independence after adulthood was unnecessary.
This phenomenon is not restricted to Korea only. The ratio of economically independent young people has decreased in other advanced economies as well. However, 81 percent of Koreans in their 20s are categorized as part of the kangaroo tribe, which is the highest among 36 OECD member countries.
The problem is that this trend may place a burden on their parents’ generation who have to prepare for their sunset years. Parents are being forced to sacrifice their retirement, which could be a social problem as the country faces the retirement of the second wave of baby boomers, or those born between 1964 and 1974, whose numbers total 9.45 million.
The shortage of quality jobs is forcing young people to be the so-called "marsupial." Even if one gets a job, the rent is too high for young people to afford on their own. The job market and public housing policies are thus crucial for the happy retirement of the older generation.
The writer is a finance editor of The Korea Times.